causality and cognition
DESCRIPTION
My talk for the Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research 2010, Wanaka, NZTRANSCRIPT
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Culture and Cognition: Tools for a Causal Analysis
Matt GersPhilosophyVUWAWCBR, 2010
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Cultural Context InfluencesHuman Minds
(Re!-tooled Mind)
(Environmentally Supported)
(Extended Cognition)
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Minimal Sense of Cause
(Min): X causes Y if and only if there are circumstances such that if some (single) intervention that changes the value of X (and no other variable) were to occur, then Y or the probability distribution of Y would change.
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Probabilistic Causal Explanation
1. Pr(E|Cexpl) ≈ Pr(E|C)
2. Pr(E|Cexpl ≈ Pr(E|Cexpl∧Ck) for all Ck
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Causes : Stable Causes
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Causes : Specific Causes
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Causes : Proportional Causes
Foundational Concepts (Cognitive Tools)
Education / Language / Writing Systems
BRAINS
Cognitive Trait
Critical Thinking Course
Informal Experiences
Neurons / Neural Networks
Proteins
Genes
Membranes
Amino Acid Sequences
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A State-Space Model of Cause
Stable >
En
able
r >
Spec
ific
>
CAG Repeats and chorea
Dysbindin and high psychometric tests
Pen and Paper and long division
Critical Thinking Course and high psychometric tests